Immediate past governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, has faulted the statement credited to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that he ‘did nothing’ during his tenure as chief executive of the state.
He said many Nigerians wonder why Atiku, being a former top office holder, finds pleasure in denigrating fellow leaders at a time the political class is passing through a most difficult and challenging period.
It would be recalled that Atiku, while speaking as chairman of the 3rd Progressives Governance Lecture Series of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held in Owerri, the Imo State capital, weekend, said that just like ‘Ohakim did nothing’ in four years, President Goodluck Jonathan is similarly doing nothing at the federal level.
Atiku was further quoted as saying: “I was in a state recently to commission a project, and for the first time, I saw true change and transformation, not that type Ohakim displayed on television, this is the type APC can only bring to you”.
But in a statement by his Adviser on Strategy, Dr Kelechi Okpaleke, Ohakim said he is aware that Atiku is a professional critic of the president, but noted that the venue of the attack suggests that his political associates in Imo State are uncomfortable with his (Ohakim) decision to run for the office of the governor again.
“His Excellency is aware that Alhaji Abubakar has mapped out some states where he will install his boys as governors in 2015, preparatory to a presidential bid in 2019 (not 2015); and that Imo State happens to be one of such states”, he said.